HTML formatted MSG file print failure

I have a situation where using the Windows Explorer to
right-click on an (HTML formatted) MSG file (saved to disk
from Outlook) then selecting the print context menu item
will not send the file to the printer.

This only appears to fail for messages that are HTML
formatted, all other MSG files are successfully sent to
the printer / print driver.

This is being used with Outlook 2000 on Windows 2000
systems (both Windows 2000 Workstation and Windows 2000
[Advanced] Server) with all of the various service packs
and patches applied for each as well as for IE (with the
exception of Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.)

Has anyone else run into this situation, and is there a
known workaround for getting it to work?

The HTML formatted MSG files can be opened directly within
Outlook and if opened / viewed they will print
successfullly.

If I open Outlook with a different (non-HTML formatted)
MSG file being viewed then the Windows Explorer context
menu printing appears to work for the HTML formatted MSG
files. However, there are some other processes being
performed on the Windows 2000 Stations where these
printing tasks are being performed that prohibit Outlook
from being opened and left open continuously.